Ethan Berkowitz: Romney-Ryan Republicans

By Ethan Berkowtz, on Mon Aug 13, 2012 at 3:30 PM ET

Romney-Ryan Republicans. It’s good alliteration, but not a game changer. First, the electorate votes the top of the ticket, and Ryan isn’t energizing enough to get a major deviation from that rule. Second, Romney now has to embrace the Ryan budget or continue to suffer the reputation as an equivocator. Third, given Ryan is universally considered a “nice guy”, he can’t suddenly become a pit bull without doing injury to his credibility. Plus, he’s young enough to nurture future ambitions and a scorched earth approach hurts him personally in the long run.

It says a lot that Romney is still trying to juice up his base rather than reach to the middle. It also spells that his campaign is in trouble that they’re willing to change the narrative they’ve been using. But, and that’s the biggest but in this cycle, there’s all that Citizen United money out there which could just overwhelm conventional wisdom, political reality and electoral logic.